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Gwyn Haslock pictured surfing in Newquay in 1965. One of the fascinating images unearthed by the Museum of British Surfing for their latest exhibition. See SWNS story SWSURF; These remarkable photos show Britain’s earliest surfers dicing with death as they take to the sea – with boards made from COFFINS. The yellowing snaps, taken as long ago as 1919, show thrillseekers carrying heavy oak slabs into the ocean to try the new craze that was sweeping South Africa and Australia. Some of earliest models were made by undertaker Tom Tremewan from Perranporth, Cornwall, who used whatever wood he had to hand – hence the nickname ‘coffin lids’. Other enthusiasts waded into the seas lugging floorboards held together by brass screws, laying belly down on their unwieldy vessels.